Chechnya set for Copenhagen agenda

Date: 12/09/02

By David Cronin

DENMARK'S EU presidency plans to reopen the highly sensitive dossier on Russia's human rights abuses in Chechnya in its dialogue with Vladimir Putin's government.

Eager to avoid friction with Moscow, seen as a valuable ally in the campaign against terrorism, the EU has in the past shied away from berating its troops' activities in the breakaway republic. Yet Copenhagen now wants to have the question discussed at the EU-Russia summit due to take place in the Danish capital this November.

Although the agenda still has to be drawn up, one EU official said Chechnya is likely to figure. 'We intend to bring it up,' the official added. 'The Russians told us that President Putin wouldn't have any problem with discussing it.'

However, Moscow sources say they fear the Nordic state's traditional support for human rights could lead it to make unfavourable comments about Russia's behaviour in Chechnya, where tens of thousands of civilians and more than 5,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since 1994.

A frank debate on the subject would be in marked contrast to the last EU-Russia summit in Moscow last May. The declaration issued after the gathering didn't even refer to the conflict.

By focusing on alleged links between Chechen guerrillas and the al-Qaeda network, Putin has managed to portray the suppression of its secessionists as an anti-terrorist battle. France, for example, which had previously strongly rebuked Russia over Chechnya, has recently been defending Putin's tactics.

But some MEPs have continued making Chechnya a cause célèbre. Last week the Radical Party's Olivier Dupuis challenged the European Commission to state if it felt the kidnapping of a doctor, Ali Khanbiev, bore the hallmarks of an action by Russian paramilitaries. Khanbiev, a brother of the Chechen Health Minister Oumar Khanbiev, was taken from his home by masked men in the early hours of 4 September.

Meanwhile, Russia's special negotiator with the EU on its Baltic enclave Kaliningrad recently warned that his government would boycott the summit if the Commission does not accept the terms of Moscow's latest proposal on ending the dispute over this region, which borders two prospective EU states, Poland and Lithuania. Although Dimitrij Rogozin has made comments about a possible boycott to reporters, EU insiders say Russia has not made any such warning through official channels.

Denmark's EU Presidency plans to reopen the highly sensitive dossier on Russia's human rights abuses in Chechnya in its dialogue with Vladimir Putin's Government.